(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer mouse devices in general, and to a primarily palm operated mouse device in particular.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Almost all application programs written for computers today utilize the so called mouse devices in order to point and/or select objects on computer screens. As is well known in the art, this is accomplished by moving a cursor on the screen, positioning it on the desired place or object, and pressing or clicking a lever on the mouse device to select or highlight the object.
In the present state of the art of computer mouse technology used in pointing to and selecting objects on computer screens, both the "placement" and the "selection" of the object and then the "clicking" onto the object is accomplished by pressing or rolling finger actuated levers or balls. By selecting, it is meant that the cursor, which is electronically connected to the computer through the mouse device, as is well known in the art, is moved to the desired object on the screen and an appropriate lever on the mouse is then pressed so as to highlight the selected object. The electrical connection between the mouse device and the computer can be via an electrical cord or cordless via radio magnetic coupling. An object may be, for example, a word or a picture on the computer screen. And, depending upon the particular mouse is used, the highlighting of the object with the mouse can be accomplished by pressing on an appropriate key or lever once or twice. The actual movement of the finger, or thumb with most mouse devices, until the object on the screen is selected can be very tiresome. If used for long periods of time involving days, weeks, and more, the fingers, especially the thumb can get not only sore and exhibit problems with metacarpal bones and the associated tendons, but actually become dysfunctional. Wrist ligament and wrist carpals can also exhibit pain and discomfort if proper care is not taken such as resting the fingers for extended periods of time, thus causing not to get work done, such as typing a manuscript, as needed, or falling behind in job responsibilities, etc.
In prior art, there are primarily two types of mouse devices that are in use. In an early type shown in FIG. 1, the device comprises a somewhat rectangular shaped base (10) having a hand rest (20) and keys (30), (33) and (35) which are finger actuated. Device (10) is first moved about on a flat surface such as a desk top with the palm of the hand until the cursor on the computer screen is positioned on the object to be selected. Then, one of the finger actuated keys is pressed by a finger to highlight the selected object. The key to be pressed is determined by the programming of the particular key for a particular function. Usually key (30) on the left is programmed to place the cursor at a particular location on the screen when pressed with the index finger. When key or lever (30) is pressed or "clicked" twice, the object where the cursor is placed is selected of highlighted. The middle key (33) sometimes takes the function of clicking twice so that rather than clicking lever (30) twice, middle lever (33) can be clicked once for the same function. Lever (35), which can be pressed with the finger next to the pinkie, usually is programmed to select a drop down menu on the computer screen. With this type of mouse device, an electrical cord (25) provides the connection to a computer (not shown).
In a second type of a mouse device, the selection of an object on the computer screen is accomplished not by moving the device itself but by rolling with the thumb, a ball or a track-ball, on a stationary base (60) shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 depicts a popular mouse device known as Trackman, reference numeral (40). The selecting function is accomplished by rotating a freely rolling track-ball (50) in its cage (55) with a thumb until the cursor is positioned onto a desired object to be selected ,and while there, any one of the levers (70), (73) or (75) can be pressed by index finger, middle finger or the finger next to the pinkie, depending upon how the levers have been assigned through programming. It is the repeated movement of the thumb in awkward and in unnatural contortions that cause the thumb to experience pain and discomfort. This is true with a even more recent mouse device described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,798 where Hamling discloses a universal ergonomic computer mouse/trackball, but thumb is still needed to operate the trackball. What is needed is a device that uses only those anatomical parts of the hand to operate a mouse device naturally, and without discomfort and injury, and leave other parts at their natural state without subjecting them to undue pain.